Description

Your letter of July 1st came duly to hand but so overwhelmed
have I been with correspondence that I have not been able to reach
it until a few days ago. So great a number of letters have come
since July 9th that I have only just been able to commence to get
them in shape. I am making diligent search for the letters to which
you refer but as yet have not succeeded in finding them among the
mass of letters in which they were hastily put, but I will continue
to search and at the earliest opportunity comply with your
request.

Regretting the unavoidable delay

I am

Very truly yours

J. A. Garfield

When this letter was written, James A. Garfield, nominated at the
Republican National Convention in the previous June as the party's
candidate for president, was residing at home in Mentor, Ohio,
while surrogates were engaged in the presidential election. As this
letter attests, it was hastily written by a harried candidate
overwhelmed by correspondence. In months between his nomination and
election as president in November of 1880, Garfield received more
than 5,000 letters while he was at Mentor. One of the letters to
which Garfield claimed he could not find may have been a letter he
received on May 7, 1880, which recommended Thompson for a position
in the Interior Department should Garfield become president. Ex.
R. Douglas Stuart.

Condition: The letter has vertical and horizontal folds and
adhesive residue around the edges indicating where it was attached
to another surface. Otherwise the letter is in good condition.